oo late, and that we must wait till one o'clock tiffin; but a little
persuasion induced the manager to find some cold meat, eggs, and
lemonade. We afterwards drove out to one or two shops, but anything so
hopeless as the stores here I never saw. Not a single curiosity could
we find, not even a bird. We drove round the town, and out to the
Governor's house; he was away, but we were most kindly received by
Mrs. Anson and his daughter, and strongly recommended by them to make
an expedition to the bungalow at the top of the hill. In about an hour
and a half, always ascending, we reached the Governor's bungalow,
situated in a charming spot, where the difference of 10 deg. in the
temperature, caused by being 1,500 feet higher up, is a great boon.
After tiffin and a rest at the hotel, a carriage came to take us to
the foot of the hill, about four miles from the town. We went first
to a large Jesuit establishment, where some most benevolent old
priests were teaching a large number of Malay boys reading, writing,
and geography. Then we went a little further, and, in a small wooden
house, under the cocoa trees, at last found some of the little humming
birds for which the Malay Archipelago is famous. They glisten with a
marvellous metallic lustre all over their bodies, instead of only in
patches, as one sees upon those in South America and the West Indies.
The drive was intensely tropical in character, until we reached the
waterfall, where we left the carriage and got into chairs, each
carried by six coolies. The scenery all about the waterfall is lovely,
and a large stream of sparkling, cool, clear water tumbling over the
rocks was most refreshing to look at. Many people who have business in
Penang live up here, riding up and down morning and evening, for the
sake of the cool, refreshing night air. One of the most curious things
in vegetation which strikes our English eyes is the extraordinary
abundance of the sensitive plant. It is interwoven with all the grass,
and grows thickly in all the hedgerows. In the neatly kept turf, round
the Government bungalow, its long, creeping, prickly stems,
acacia-like leaves, and little fluffy mauve balls of flowers are so
numerous, that, walking up and down the croquet lawn, it appears to be
bowing before you, for the delicate plants are sensible of even an
approaching footstep, and shut up and hide their tiny leaves among the
grass long before you really reach them.

From the top of the hill